Libraries of the Middle East Open Day
The BnF and its partner institutions in the Bibliothèques d’Orient / Libraries of the Middle East Programme invite the public to discover remarkable collections on the history, societies and cultures of the Middle East.
Curators and researchers will present documents and sets identified, preserved, and enhanced in the framework of Bibliothèques d’Orient / Libraries of the Middle East, the cooperation programme of the BnF with conservation and research institutions in the Middle East, and around collections relating to the region.
The BnF currently collaborates with fourteen institutions that hold collections with a heritage and scientific value and that are located in Egypt, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey. Cooperation covers one or more areas: identification, restoration, cataloguing, digitisation, and enhancement through support to research and digital humanities projects and dissemination on Gallica and the Bibliothèques d’Orient website.
The Programme is made possible thanks to support, on the one hand, from the Mellon Foundation as part of its Public Knowledge Programme, and, on the other, from the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) for actions relating to the restoration, digitisation and dissemination of the Iraqi documentary heritage.
Programme
9:30 - 10:00 – Opening speeches
- Gilles Pécout, President of the BnF
- Ophélie Ramonatxo, Director of International Engagement, BnF
10:00 - 11:00 – Around religious productions
- Fr Samer Yohanna, doctor in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, lecturer at and co-founder of the Syriac Department at Salahaddin University, superior of the Chaldean Antonian order, Erbil
- Dr André Binggeli, Head of the Greek and Oriental Christian Section, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (IRHT-CNRS), Paris
- Fr Mateus Domingues da Silva, doctor in Arabic Studies, Director of the Library, Dominican Institute of Oriental Studies (Idéo), Cairo
- Marion Blocquet, Archivist and Paleographer, Director of the Cantal Departmental Archive
11:00 - 11:15 – Break
11:15-12:00 – Popular literature
- Sara Yontan Musnik, former Curator of Turkish collections at the BnF
- Dr Iyas Hassan, Professor of Pre-Modern Arabic Literature at Sorbonne University, Director of the Department of Arabic, Medieval and Modern Studies, Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), Beirut
- Claire Cialone-Grégoire, Research Engineer in Digital Humanities.
12:00-13:00 – Production and dissemination of knowledge on Egypt and the Levant
- Fr Bernard Ntamak, Head Librarian, École Biblique et Archéologique Française (Ébaf), Jerusalem
- Elsa Zakhia, Regional Head of Libraries, Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), Beirut
- Dr Taos Babour, CNRS Research Engineer, Head of Media and Digital Humanities, Ifpo, Beirut
- Agnès Macquin, Director of the Library, Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO), Cairo
13:00 – 14:30 – Lunch
14:30-15:45 - Nationalisms and intellectual movements
- Dr Joseph Rustom, doctor in Urban History, Director of the Oriental Library of Saint-Joseph University, Beirut
- Dr Manel Belhadj Ali, doctor in Comparative Literature from Sorbonne University
- Dr Ahmed Abdelbasset Mohamed, doctor in Linguistics, Researcher at the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, Cairo
- Rafiq Saleh, Director, Zheen Centre for Documentation and Research, Sulaymaniyah
15:45-16:00 - Break
16:00-17:30 - Urban Modernities
- Dr Omar Mohammed, doctor in History from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Assistant Professor at Sciences Po, Paris
- Marie-Delphine Martellière, CNRS Research Engineer, Head of Archives, Digitisation Unit and French-language Egyptian Press Programme, Head of Documentary Resources, Centre d’Études Alexandrines (CEAlex), Alexandria
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Dr Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Historian, Associate Director for Research and Programmes, Salt, Istanbul
- Amed Gökçen, Lecturer and Manager of Special Projects, Istanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi
- Başak Koşanay, Assistant Archivist, Istanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi
- Dr Jean-François Pérouse, Assistant Professor and Researcher at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès
- Murat Tülek, Urban Planner and Archivist, independent researcher in urban studies
Panels will be introduced and facilitated by Dr Géraldine Chatelard, Head of Programme, Middle East and Arabic Materials / Libraries of the Middle East Project Manager, doctor in History and Civilisation from the EHESS, and Zakaria Haffar, Iraq Project Manager, International Engagement Department, BnF.
Pratical information
Access is free – Advanced booking is recommended
Please arrive 20 min before the start of the event
Date and time
Thursday 20 June 2024
9:30-17:30
Venue
François-Mitterrand - Petit auditorium
Quai François-Mauriac – Paris 13e
Eastern Entrance from rue Émile Durkheim
The Bibliothèques d’Orient / Libraries of the Middle East Open Day has benefitted from support from the Mellon Foundation and the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH).
With the participation of the Dominican Institute of Oriental Studies (Idéo, Cairo) the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO, Cairo), the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (Cairo), the Centre for Alexandrian Studies (CEAlex, Alexandria), the French Biblical and Archaeological School (Ébaf, Jerusalem), the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (Jerusalem), the French Institute in the Near East (Ifpo, and its libraries in Beirut, Damascus, and Amman), the Oriental Library of Saint-Joseph University (BO-USJ, Beirut), the Scriptorium Syriacum of the Chaldean Antonian Order of St Hormizd (Erbil), the Zheen Centre for Documentation and Research (Sulaymaniyah), the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA, Istanbul), Salt (Istanbul), and Bilgi University (Istanbul).
